"Throughout his years of teaching at Creighton University, Fr. Tom spent many semesters as a guest investigator in physics. In 2014, the machine shop at Creighton University's Department of Physics was named the 'Fr. Thomas S. McShane, S.J. Physics Machine Shop.'"

In Memoriam: Fr. Thomas S. McShane, SJ

October 17, 2018 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Thomas "Tom" S. McShane, SJ, who was called to eternal life on October 16, 2018. Fr. Tom died at St. Camillus senior Jesuit healthcare community, in Wauwatosa, Wis. He was eighty-nine years old, a Jesuit for seventy-one years, and a priest for fifty-eight years.

Born in Omaha on July 22, 1929, Fr. Tom attended St. Margaret Mary Grade School and Creighton Prep in Omaha before entering the Society on August 8, 1947. He had the usual Jesuit course of studies at St. Stanislaus Seminary, Spring Hill College, and St. Mary's College. He was ordained on June 15, 1960, made tertianship in Decatur, Ill., and pronounced his final vows on August 15, 1963. He studied physics at St. Louis University before ordination and at the Illinois Institute of Technology after ordination.

Fr. Tom did regency at St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. After graduate studies in 1963, he began teaching physics at Creighton University and continued teaching physics there for the next forty years, until the ripe old age of eighty-four. Failing health led to his moving to St. Camillus in 2013.

Throughout his years of teaching at Creighton University, Fr. Tom spent many semesters as a guest investigator in physics. Some years he worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. Other years he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near Berkeley, Calif. In 2014, the machine shop at Creighton University's Department of Physics was named the "Fr. Thomas S. McShane, S.J. Physics Machine Shop." Fr. Tom, already at St. Camillus, joined the festivities and addressed the assembled crowd via Skype.

August 21, 2018 – As we reckon with the Grand Jury report on sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania and the failures of bishops to protect the children entrusted to their care, our hearts and prayers—first and foremost—are with the victim-survivors.

January 17, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Eugene F. Merz, SJ, who was called to eternal life on January 16, 2019, around 5:30 a.m. Gene died at Zilber Hospice in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was eighty-seven years old, a Jesuit for seventy years, and a priest for fifty-seven years.

January 16, 2019 — It was a homecoming fifty years in the making. In 2016, Fr. Casey Bukala, SJ, moved to the Colombiere Center near Detroit, where elder Jesuits live in community, receive the healthcare they need, and pray for the Church and the Society. It was not Fr. Bukala’s first time at Colombiere, however.

January 9, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. John “Jack” R. Crocker, SJ, who died on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. He was 88 years old. May he rest in peace.